This application is requesting funds for partial support of the HUSCRI Skin of Color Symposium 2015: From Bench to Bedside, to be held in Williamsburg, Virginia at the Williamsburg Lodge, November, 13-15, 2015. The symposium has grown since its inception, and we attribute the success of the prior meetings to the partial support received from NIH through NIAMS and the NIH Office of Rare Disease Research. This conference is designed to promote, develop and advance the education, knowledge, and research of cutaneous disorders which disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities. Centered on the theme of From Bench to Bedside, the proposed symposium provides a program featuring a diverse panel of nationally recognized physician-scientists, basic scientists and clinicians who will provide attendees highlights of the latest research advances across multiple relevant disciplines including public health, basic science, and the clinical diagnosis an management of select, complex and rare dermatologic conditions. The scientific sessions selected for the HUSCRI symposiums 2015 are focused on gaining a more in- depth of knowledge of vitiligo, pigmentary disorders, keloids, cutaneous lupus and cicatricial alopecia. The symposium will also feature a grant writing workshop designed to assist junior investigators (particularly minority investigators) on how to prepare proposals to successfully compete for extramural grant funding. Objectives of the grant writing session are to: 1)increase the success of junior/new investigators including minority investigators in securing funds by providing grant preparation assistance and direct feedback on ongoing research proposals; 2)support the attendance of minority junior investigators to the seminar and symposium through the provision of travel awards and; 3)facilitate the interaction and networking of junior investigators with senir members of the scientific and clinical community. We expect that the scientific sessions, short talks, and grant writing workshop combined with the synergistic environment that has characterized this conference in the past will spur the formation of new collaborations, scientific discovery, and ultimately culminate in novel treatments for dermatologic disorders disproportionately affecting individuals with skin of color